LOVERS AND LUGGERS aka Vengeance Of The Deep (1937) Lloyd Hughes, Shirley Ann Richards | Drama | B&W

Lovers and Luggers is a 1937 Australian film directed by Ken G. Hall. It is an adventure melodrama about a pianist (Lloyd Hughes) who goes to Thursday Island to retrieve a valuable pearl.

It was retitled Vengeance of the Deep in the US and United Kingdom.

SYNOPSIS
A concert pianist, as concert panists are wont to do, goes pearl diving in the South Seas to find a giant pearl for his girlfriend. He does, and that's when all the trouble begins.

In London, concert pianist Daubenny Carshott is feeling dissatisfied with his life and wanting a masculine adventure; he also desires the beautiful Stella Raff. Stella agrees to marry him if he brings back a large pearl with his own hands from Thursday Island. Daubenny notes a painting in Stella's apartment from "Craig Henderson" but when asked Stella is evasive about the artist.

Daubenny travels to Thursday Island where he buys a lugger and a house from the villainous Mendoza. He makes friends on the island, including another diver, Bill Craig, the drunken duo of McTavish and Dorner, and the boisterous Captain Quidley. He also meets Quidley's daughter, the beautiful Lorna, who likes to dress in men's clothing so she can walk around on her own at night. Lorna and Daubenny become friends and she secretly falls in love with him but Daubenny assumes she is in love with Craig.

Captain Quidley teaches Daubenny to dive. Quidley, Lorna, Daubenny and Mendoza all go out diving for pearls. Daubenny finds a pearl, to the fury of Mendoza, who believes since Daubenny used his lugger that Mendoza should have a share. Daubenny disagrees and the two men fight on board the lugger, causing the pearl to drop over the side.

Both men get in their diving suits and go down to retrieve the pearl. Mendoza dies and Daubenny is trapped. Bill Craig risks his life to rescue Daubenny.

Back on Thursday Island, Stella has arrived, accompanied by an aristocratic friend, Archie. Daubenny discovers that Bill Craig is Craig Henderson, and was also in love with Stella, and sent on a similar mission to find a pearl.

CAST & CREW
Lloyd Hughes as Daubenny Carshott
Shirley Ann Richards as Lorna Quidley
Sidney Wheeler as Captain Quidley
James Raglan as Bill Craig/Craig Henderson
Elaine Hamill as Stella Raff[5]
Frank Harvey as Carshott's manager
Ronald Whelan as Mendoza
Alec Kellaway as McTavish
Leslie Victor as Dormer
Campbell Copelin as Archie
Charlie Chan as Kishimuni
Marcelle Marnay as Lotus
Horace Cleary as China Tom
Claude Turton as Charlie Quong
Bobbie Hunt as Lady Winter
Paul Furness as Professor of psychology
Charles Zoli as Carshott's valet
Bill Onus as an Aboriginal man

Directed by Ken G. Hall
Written by Frank Harvey, Edmund Barclay
Based on novel by Gurney Slade
Produced by Ken G. Hall
Cinematography Frank Hurley, George Heath
Edited by William Shepherd
Music by Hamilton Webber
Production company Cinesound Productions
Distributed by British Empire Films (Aust), Paramount Pictures (UK), Astor Pictures (USA)
Release dates 31 December 1937 (Australia), 1940 (USA)
Running time 99 mins (Australia), 96 mins (Uk), 65 mins (USA)
Country Australia
Language English
Budget £24,000

The script was based on a 1928 novel by Gurney Slade, from whom Cinesound obtained the film rights in late 1936.[7] In the novel, Daubenny travels to "Lorne" (Broome, thinly-disguised) rather than Thursday Island. Lorna is not related to Captain Quid, but actually is Stella's half-sister. There are two other British expatriates diving for pearls in addition to Craig, Chillon and Major Rawlings. Daubney does not romance Lorna and is reunited with a reformed Stella at the end. Lorna winds up with Craig.

Hall gave the lead role to American actor Lloyd Hughes, who had been a star in the silent era and since then mostly worked on stage. Hall had met Hughes when the director visited Hollywood in 1935. The actor went on to make The Broken Melody for Hall.

This was the first of what would be several character roles Alec Kellaway played for Ken G. Hall. The cast included a Hong Kong actor called Charlie Chan.

Hall was enthusiastic about the project because of his love for the tropics, although budget considerations meant most of the film had to be shot in the studio, with only the second unit going to Thursday Island under Frank Hurley. Hurley also shot some footage at Port Stephens and Broken Bay. Cinesound built one of its largest ever sets to recreate Thursday Island.

In June, Hall paid tribute to art director Eric Thompson saying, "we have had almost incessant rain since we began production some five weeks ago with the result that we have been compelled to keep on working 'exteriors,' and immediately we finish one set Eric's boys have to start demolishing and assembling a new set for the next take". Stuart F. Doyle resigned from Cinesound during production but was kept on to supervise the finishing of the movie.